US mainstream media outlets, pundits and officials have pulled out all the stops in attempting to smear Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who traveled to Syria earlier this month and then had the courage to criticize the US’s policy of funding and arming terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda on national television.

Gabbard, a Bernie Sanders supporter who resigned from her position as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee to support the anti-war candidate last February, traveled to Syria on a fact-finding mission earlier this month, where she had an unexpected meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A combat veteran with two tours of duty in Iraq under her belt, Gabbard has been outspoken among US politicians in pushing for peace in Syria. Shortly after Trump’s election, Gabbard surprised pundits and many members of her own party by meeting with the President-elect to discuss Syria and the fight against Daesh.

On Wednesday, Gabbard spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper, and defended her decision to go to Syria and to meet with the Syrian President. “If we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there’s a possibility that we could achieve peace,” she said.

After Tapper interjected to blame Assad for the violence, and accused Gabbard of “giving [the Syrian President] enhanced credibility” by meeting with him, the Congresswoman responded by stressing that “whatever you think about President Assad, the fact is that he is the President of Syria. In order for any peace agreement, in order for any possibility of a viable peace agreement to occur, there has to be a conversation with him.”

Gabbard stressed that it should be up to Syrians to determine Assad’s fate, “what happens with their government and their future.”

What followed was a debate between Gabbard and Tapper, who called Assad a ‘butcher’ and said that there was no democracy to speak of in Syria. Gabbard, who documented her conversations with ordinary Syrians during the fact-finding trip, said that she had heard something very different from what the mainstream media narrative is pushing.

“I’ll tell you what I heard from the Syrian people that I met with walking down the streets in Aleppo, in Damascus,” the Congresswoman said. “They expressed happiness and joy in seeing an American walking through their streets, but [asked] a question: Why is it that the United States, its allies and other countries are providing support and arms to terrorist groups like al-Nusra (al-Qaeda), Ahrar al-Sham, ISIS who are on the ground there raping, kidnapping, torturing and killing the Syrian people?”

“They asked me: Why are the United States and its allies supporting these terrorist groups who are destroying Syria, when it was al-Qaeda who attacked the United States on 9/11, not Syria. I didn’t have an answer for them,” Gabbard stressed.

With Tapper insisting that the US only provided assistance for so-called moderate rebels, Gabbard countered, saying that “everywhere I went, every person I spoke to, I asked this question, and without hesitation they said that there are no moderate rebels.” 

“Regardless of the name of these groups, the strongest fighting force on the ground in Syria is al-Nusra (al-Qaeda) and ISIS – that is a fact,” Gabbard emphasized. “There’s a number of different other groups; all of them essentially are fighting alongside, with or under the command of the strongest group on the ground that’s trying to overthrow Assad.”

Since returning from her trip and the CNN interview, Gabbard has been openly smeared by journalists in the mainstream media, fellow members of Congress, and pundits of all stripes. Congressmen Adam Kinzinger, for example, criticized her for making the trip, and said he hoped she didn’t meet with the “butcher Assad.”